Cover

Front Matter

Contents

Introduction

This book is a product of many long years of experience in, enlightenment about,
frustration with, and hope for the education of deaf children. Several of the contributing
authors began as interpreters in education. Most, like myself, have left
the everyday work of educational interpreting in K–12 settings. But, some hope is
clear, even for the despair felt by many. All the authors have continued to search ...

Part 1. Deaf Students

Student Perspectives on Educational Interpreting: Twenty Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Offer Insights and Suggestions

This chapter unveils the viewpoints and suggestions of twenty deaf and hard of
hearing students with respect to learning by means of interpretation. First, students
and their parents explain why they chose placements in mainstream settings
with interpreters rather than in self-contained deaf classrooms or in schools for the
deaf. Next, deaf students describe how interpreter skill levels affect them, how ...

Language Myths in Interpreted Education: First Language, Second Language, What Language?

Our system has no way to judge whether deaf students in the educational mainstream
are afforded an equal education. Between 46,000 and 51,000 deaf and hard
of hearing children are in the U.S. public schools at the elementary and secondary
level (Allen et al. 1994). During the 1998–99 school year, approximately 59 percent
of children with “hearing impairments” in the United States spent more than 40 ...

Language Accessibility in a Transliterated Education: English Signing Systems

The key question to be asked about the use of English signing systems with deaf
children is Do they work? Do children exposed to English signing systems actually
acquire competence in English? To answer this question, we must examine
how children acquire natural human languages. Are the same processes available
to children acquiring English signing systems? What have we learned from ...

How Might Learning through an Educational Interpreter Influence Cognitive Development?

Put simply, educating children with the use of an interpreter is an educational
experiment. Although published demographic data documents the number of
children who are being educated in classrooms with educational interpreters
(Kluwin, Moore, and Gaustad 1992), no studies have been done to document how
well these students are doing. For all children, deaf or hard of hearing and hearing ...

Part 2. Interpreting and Interpreters

Perspectives on Educational Interpreting from Educational Anthropology and an Internet Discussion Group

Between being relatively new to the school setting and serving a low-incidence population,
many interpreters in school settings are facing virtually uncharted territory.
With expectations as ambiguous as they are varied and with roles poorly defined,
interpreters—and the students and teachers with whom they work—are often left
without a template for responding to the day-to-day circumstances they face. ...

Competencies of K–12 Educational Interpreters: What We Need Versus What We Have

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the education of deaf and hard of hearing
students and the use of sign language was a common occurrence. Sign language
was viewed not only as an educational tool but also as a method of communication.
The methods of teaching that used sign language were based on methods
used to educate deaf and hard of hearing children in France. Sign language was ...

Interpretability and Accessibility of Mainstream Classrooms

After more than three decades of mainstreaming, with little research to support its
effectiveness, more and more people are actively questioning the process, wondering
to what extent mainstreamed deaf students are being provided illusionary
access to a system that is fundamentally biased against their need for visual learning.
Turner (2002, 2004) describes this kind of situation as institutional audism, the ...

Part 3. Improving Interpreted Education

Educational Interpreting: Developing Standards of Practice

Although circumstances surrounding the advent of educational signed language
interpreting are well documented, the goals and processes defining the practice
are not. Since its inception, educational interpreting has taken on a “try everything”
approach, resulting in a practice that is highly unstable with respect to the
nature and scope of its responsibilities and, consequently, the outcomes it yields ...

Assessment and Supervision of Educational Interpreters: What Job? Whose Job? Is This Process Necessary?

Educational interpreters often work in isolation without the support of other
interpreters. They may live and work in rural communities, interpreting in a
school or a school district where only one deaf or hard of hearing child attends.
Perhaps no other interpreters are in the vicinity. Interpreters may not have the
opportunity to participate in professional interpreting organizations either ...

The Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment: Current Structure and Practices

The Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) is a process that is
designed to evaluate the interpreting skills of educational interpreters in a classroom
setting (Schick and Williams 1992). The EIPA is not limited to any one signed
language or sign system, which is essential given the diverse signed languages that
are used in the public schools. The tool can be used to evaluate interpreters who ...

Theoretical Tools for Educational Interpreters, or “The True Confessions of an Ex-Educational Interpreter”

When I became a sign language interpreter in the 1970s, I was deeply inspired by
the politics of access and inclusion. In addition, because I was studying linguistics,
I was attracted to the possibility of using my abilities in manipulating symbols to
work with languages, in particular, with their meanings and structures. The unique
and perhaps odd set of skills that prompts some of us to move from being everyday ...

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